By Zephyria 
[You’ve made it this far (^0^)b I should reward a Returner who hasn’t given up hope that there might be survivors yet, shouldn’t I?]
[Bonus Quest]
[Find the survivors of the magic stone exchange (4/29)]
[Completion Reward: Fragment of Longing]
“Ah! A protective magic circle is active over there!”
Lee Sarang cheered and dashed forward. The way she bolted forward just by seeing the active protective magic circle showed that she was still an inexperienced hunter.
Kim Si-baek frowned at the sudden appearance of a new quest, but he still checked his surroundings. He felt no presence of magical beasts.
‘…There are twenty-nine survivors in this building alone?’
It was a joyful thing if people were safe. However, considering the nature of the giant vine, which absorbed everything in its path, that number was excessively high. It wouldn’t be entirely impossible if they had quickly evacuated to a safe place without panicking, but…
Seeds that sprouted in a place where magical energy had been purified.
Survivors who lived in a way completely contrary to the habits of the magical beast.
Not a single corpse.
These were issues that bothered him more than an ambiguous reward like a ‘Fragment of Longing.’ Furthermore, the wording of the quest felt somewhat unsettling.
‘Find the survivors?’
Swallowing his complex thoughts, Kim Si-baek walked toward the protective magic circle.
The people rescued from the protective magic circle installed in the corner of the cafeteria were four cooks. None of them were seriously injured or dead.
“We four are the only cooks. The nutritionist was away when the magical beast appeared, so I don’t know if they evacuated safely…”
“I saw the nutritionist on the evacuation list!”
“Is that so? What a relief.”
At Lee Sarang’s chatter—she was young enough to be their daughter—the cooks each wore expressions of relief.
“Could you explain the situation?”
While waiting for them to calm down, Hwang Suho asked the question. Beside him, Kim Si-baek carefully scanned the survivors. No matter how much they had relied on a protective magic circle, how could people who hadn’t even awakened be without a single scratch?
The subsequent testimony from the cooks was also suspicious.
“Well… I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but… it was only noisy at first, and then those, plant stems? Roots? Those things…”
“Giant vines!”
“Ah, yes. I always get the names of magical beasts mixed up… The giant vines were only noisy at first when they burst through the floor and ceiling, but they were actually very slow.”
“I have a protective magical tool my daughter bought for me, and I thought about using it, but since they said magic circles are sturdier than tools… I figured it would be better to stay here with the other ladies.”
“So we held hands and ran to the cafeteria. It was before the lights went out.”
Confusion began to spread across the faces of the other hunters listening to the testimony.
“The giant vines were slow?”
“They barely moved. If it weren’t for the initial burst, I would have thought they were just strangely grown plants.”
The hunters’ faces were filled with disbelief as they recalled the tentacles of the giant vine, which pierced or entwined the body in an instant to poison and absorb the prey. Moreover, giant vines cannot detect light; instead, they detect prey through air vibrations caused by movement or sound. And yet, they let ordinary people run away?
‘There are slight hallucinogenic symptoms in the giant vine’s poison powder, but could they be remembering it distortedly because of a hallucination? Ah damn, I didn’t think I’d need a poison-detecting magical tool right away, so I left it outside.’
Lee Sarang began to feel a headache coming on. While there was a possibility that the four had suffered a collective hallucination, it still didn’t explain why they were perfectly fine without a single scratch.
Seeking advice from an S-class who would have more experience, she looked for Kim Si-baek, only to find that he had already moved in front of the cooks.
“May I touch your foreheads to check if you have been poisoned by the giant vine?”
“Po-poison? Yes, yes! Please do!”
“Excuse me.”
With his eyes closed, Kim Si-baek lightly touched and released the foreheads of the cooks one by one. The hunters’ eyes widened.
“They are neither poisoned nor experiencing hallucinations.”
“Do you have a poison-detecting ability?”
“Yes, well, something like that.”
To be precise, it was a method of utilizing divine power to determine whether opposing magical energy had been absorbed into the human body. Ignoring the hunters’ whispering, Kim Si-baek looked back at Lee Sarang.
“It doesn’t seem like we can uncover anything right now. Since these people are fine, how about we move along?”
“Ah! Yes! There are still places left to search.”
Judging by the abnormal reaction of the giant vines, there might be more survivors. The hunters set aside their questions for a moment and moved to continue the search.
[Bonus Quest]
[Find the survivors of the magic stone exchange (7/29)]
[Completion Reward: Fragment of Longing]
The system window also counted the survivors found by Tae-un and Seo Gae-un’s party. Kim Si-baek and Lee Sarang found one person in the information management room, while Tae-un and Seo Gae-un found two people inside a high-end luxury car expensive enough to withstand a magical beast’s attack.
The survivors’ testimonies were identical.
“Yes… I hid in the car while the giant vine’s reaction was dormant. Guild Master Tae-un split the car in half, even though it had withstood the beast’s attack, but…”
“And?”
“…It’s nothing. Thank you for saving me…”
The president of a small-to-medium enterprise, who had visited with a subordinate from the magic stone exchange, broke into a cold sweat at Tae-un’s chilly voice. It was a situation where the door had been twisted by the beast’s pressure, and he wouldn’t have been able to escape without the car body being broken.
Lee Sarang muttered quietly to herself.
“…I have a feeling, a feeling.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oops, did you hear that?”
Thinking she had found a clue, Kim Si-baek looked down to see Lee Sarang awkwardly scratching the back of her head. She then stood on her tiptoes and whispered.
“Those two are having an affair. I’m sure of it.”
“…Ah.”
“If you look closely, they feel too intimate to be just a boss and a subordinate, but they aren’t a married couple. Only the president is wearing a wedding ring. My intuition for this is amazing. I was the only one who noticed the couples secretly dating within the guild.”
As she was gossiping, Lee Sarang suddenly remembered the sexual flirting from earlier as Tae-un approached, and she quickly avoided the area, looking pale. Seeing Tae-un make even a tanker—who could withstand magical beasts—flee with just his tongue, Kim Si-baek silently raised his “minor shield.”
[Death and Beauty blink their round eyes. I am certain you look at least 100 years younger.]
“…Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut until we get out.”
“So, was there any other progress?”
“All I’ve heard is the same story from the survivors. How about you, Hyung?”
When he told Tae-un about the new quest, the latter focused on the reward rather than the survivors.
“Fragment of Longing? I wonder what that is.”
“Whatever it is, judging by the name, I don’t think it’ll be helpful in preventing the apocalypse.”
“Hyung, you really distrust the system.”
“You wouldn’t trust it either if you experienced it yourself.”
Besides, if he didn’t expect anything in the first place, there was no reason to be disappointed. Tae-un rubbed his chin in thought and asked.
“Since it’s ‘longing’… Hyung, your goal is to go back. Could it be something related to Mak Slecht?”
“Who knows.”
It would be a lie to say he didn’t miss Mak Slecht and his connections there. However, he didn’t judge it to be important enough in the current situation to be received as a quest reward.
“I do have longing, but it’s a place I’ll eventually return to, right? Just because I’m away from it now doesn’t mean I need to receive something related to Mak Slecht as a reward. If it’s a reward, it’s better to have something that is even slightly useful right now.”
“….”
“But that’s just my opinion.”
Shrugging with the feeling that since they couldn’t communicate anyway, he might as well just take whatever was given, Kim Si-baek noticed the silent Tae-un faintly curling the corners of his lips.
“Hyung, you’re surprisingly cold-hearted, just as your heart is firm. But it’s an efficient way of thinking.”
“That’s what happens when you live in an orphanage and then get ground down in a dirt-poor company.”
Biyendwe, the culprit who had brought him into that dirt-poor company—meaning the obscure religious sect—flinched. Taking advantage of that moment, Tae-un leaned his head toward Kim Si-baek. His languid breath almost licked the earlobe, delivering a secret and sticky whisper.